The main suspect in the assassination in Chile of a former Venezuelan soldier opposed to the regime of President Nicolas Maduro has been extradited by Costa Rica, Chilean Interior Minister Carolina Toha announced on Tuesday.
Maikel Villegas, a Venezuelan arrested on July 12 among a group of migrants crossing the Panama-Costa Rica border, arrived in Santiago, Chile, on Tuesday evening aboard a Chilean military plane, Toha said in a statement. to the press.
According to the minister, this individual is the main suspect in the assassination of former Venezuelan army lieutenant Ronald Ojeda, 32, kidnapped from his home in Santiago on February 21 at dawn by fake police officers. Nine days later, he was found dead in a suitcase buried in a working-class neighborhood of the Chilean capital.
The Chilean Public Prosecutor's Office believes that a political motive is the main hypothesis in this case, without directly naming the Venezuelan government.
Mr. Ojeda had obtained political asylum in Chile after escaping from a Venezuelan prison where he was being held for “conspiracy”. On social media, he described himself as a “political prisoner” and campaigned against the regime of socialist President Nicolas Maduro.
The Attorney General of Venezuela, Tarek William Saab, estimated in June that the assassination of Mr. Ojeda was a set-up orchestrated by “foreign intelligence services” with a view to “blurring relations between Chile and Venezuela at the very moment when an important rapprochement was taking place”.
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